About the advisor

Who am i:

My name is René Spaan, citizen of The Netherlands. I was born in 1971 in the city of Utrecht. My current job is within the Royal Netherlands Air Force, where i'm an officer in the Flight Operations Support branch.

 


My background in the military:

 

I started my military career as a conscript in the Royal Netherlands Army artillery in 1991.

In 1993 i submitted an application for a NCO job in the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF).

Since then i gained very deep knowledge of world wide armed forces (all branches), navigational skills, leadership skills, doctrine as well as advanced equipment recognition skills and how this equipment interacts/works.

I gained combat experience in Bosnia-Hercegovina (UNPROFOR/IFOR/ICTY), Kosovo (Operation Allied Force) and Afghanistan (OEF & ISAF) during peace-keeping, peace enforcing and wartime missions, within UN, NATO and Coalition organisations.

While deployed with IFOR (Bosnia-Hercegovina) i was embedded in a (U.S.) Combat Camera team (both land and airborne), besides other combat duty's.

During my (still lasting) career within the RNLAF i was granted my commission, and currently i'm directing a Mission Support and Mapping (GIS-specialized) department. 

One of my lifetime side-interests have been military history (Sea, Land and Air), as well as colonial history regarding all Western nations.

 


Other interests:

Besides military advice i also test, repaint and program (AI) aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX).

Please find some of my products released as freeware at the WWW below:

AVSIM
Flightsim.com (search for spaan)